MAYFIELD, Ky. — After an EF-4 tornado ripped through Mayfield the night of Dec. 10, 2021, Gov. Andy Beshear and many others feared the worst as 110 people were inside a leveled candle factory owned by Mayfield Consumer Products. In the days following, we learned eight employees died. Those who made it out alive are grateful, but life one year later is far from what it once was.
John Lawson, a welder, had just moved from Nevada to Mayfield to be closer to his son and grandchildren. Having just moved to a new city and with Christmas bills looming, he took a temporary job at Mayfield Consumer Products. He showed up to work his fifth shift at the factory, unaware of what was about to happen.
“I had just moved here, so I didn’t have the cable turned on at my property yet. Since I was busy moving, I wasn’t listening to the radio. I showed up to work. We were there for about an hour and there was a tornado warning,” said Lawson.
As he sits in his home recounting the memories almost a year later, the pain is still fresh in his mind.
“Every time it’s raining outside, I’m scared. My wife is afraid I’m going to end up having a heart attack and dying here because it bothers me so bad,” said Lawson. “I wake up in the middle of the night from screams and listening to people. The things I heard while I was buried wake me up at night.”
Lawson is part of a class action lawsuit filed against his former employer, Mayfield Consumer Products. The suit alleges employees were told they needed to stay at work that night or risk termination.
“Another tornado warning happened and, this time, everybody was starting to argue saying ‘We want to go home.’ They told us if we went home, we would be fired. We all went back to this hallway. They were doing roll calls, and that’s when the tornado hit.”
Speaking with our Spectrum News 1 crews in the days following the tornado last year, company spokesperson Bob Ferguson said that was not the case.
“If an employee felt it was in the best interest to leave, they certainly had that option. Most of the training in bad weather is not to have people get in cars or expose themselves to a storm. Most of the training is around sheltering in the safest place that can be found,” said Ferguson in Dec. 2021.
Those are comments attorneys representing former Mayfield Consumer Products employees continue to reference.
“After the destruction of the candle factory, Mayfield Consumer Products basically called them liars in the media. We also brought claims for defamation of character and false light for those who spoke in the media about this happening and then Mayfield Consumer Products, through a spokesperson, called them liars essentially,” said Willaim Nefzger, one attorney representing former Mayfield Consumer Products employees.
Amos Jones, one of the other attorneys representing former Mayfield Consumer Products employees, says there has been little progress in the judicial process a year after the tornado.
“Nine months after we filed it, we are still waiting on decisions on where it will be heard, whether it will be heard and to what extent it will be heard. We are arguing this case belongs in a federal court. Mayfield Consumer Products, the owner of this candle factory, moved to remove it to a federal court, and that’s where we have been delayed for all of these months,” said Jones.
As they await a decision on that, Jones and his co-counsel filed a federal charge to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), arguing that Mayfield Consumer Products is retaliating against former employees who cooperated with an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigation. OSHA fined Mayfield Consumer Products $40,000 for violations of federal labor law.
“Mayfield Consumer Products, after we filed the lawsuit on behalf of our clients, responded by cutting their workers’ compensation benefits. Now, we have clients experiencing medical expenses that would normally be paid by workers’ compensation being denied because those benefits have been cut,” said Nefzger.
Employees were trapped for hours in the candle factory’s rubble, which is now nothing more than a slab of concrete as Mayfield Consumer Products rebuilds at a new site about 15 miles away. At last update, the plan was for the new site to open sometime next year.
Lawson said he suffered three fractured disks, a bulged disk and, in just a few days, will undergo shoulder surgery to remove a bone spur.
“Every bit of the treatment the doctors recommend, the workman’s comp denies it. We have to appeal to it and fight and scratch,” said Lawson. “If they had taken care of my shoulder a year ago, I might not have had to have surgery.”
Riddled with physical pain, financial stress and emotional trauma, Lawson said his life since the tornado has been nothing short of a nightmare.
“It isn’t just Dec. 11. It has been every night since that has happened. I’m sure a lot of us will have to deal with this forever,” said Lawson.
Spectrum News 1 reached out to Mayfield Consumer Products and attorneys representing the company. We could not schedule an interview before the disclosed deadline for this story. We will bring an update if they respond.